Computerized garment cutting systems are well known in the art. Known systems include those offered by the assignee of the present invention, such as Gerber Garment Technology (GGT) models S-91, S-93 and S-95. In general, these known cutting systems utilize a marker generated with a computer to optimize piece pattern density and thereby minimize the waste of fabric. However, fabrics which have a plaid or stripe are troublesome in that the clothing designer can specify an alignment of the pattern in several adjacent pieces. Consequently, the highest density of garment segment or piece patterns in the marker is not necessarily the one which provides proper pattern alignment.
In the past, the computerized cutting systems simply generated a marker having fairly large tolerances between adjacent patterns. The cloth to be cut was provided to a skilled worker who would manually align the several patterns with the geometric fabric design in the cloth and thereafter cut the cloth. As a result, cloth having geometric designs therein, such as stripes or plaids, invariably has resulted in higher garment costs due to the increased waste and the use of slow, skilled labor in the cutting process.
It would be advantageous to have a garment cutting system which could provide computer assisted geometric fabric design alignment between these patterns and the cloth, so that the advantageous computer controlled cutting knives and the like can be used regardless of the geometric fabric designs in the cloth. The present invention is drawn toward such a system.